


Is My Heartbeat Speeding Up From Rage Or Something Else?

by JamlessGenius



Category: Lost in Translation (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Enemies to Lovers, Hufflepuff Ahn Jaewon | Wyld, Hufflepuff Kim Daehyun (Lost In Translation), Implied Sexual Content, Lee Minsoo is Bad at Feelings, M/M, N.E.W.T.s | Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests, Potions Accident, Potions Class (Harry Potter), Ravenclaw Kang Dongho | D.Min, Rival Relationship, Sexual Tension, Slytherin Lee Minsoo, jjolee supremacy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:29:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26261173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JamlessGenius/pseuds/JamlessGenius
Summary: Hogwarts AU: Seventh-years Dongho Kang and Minsoo Lee despise each other. When a potions incident goes awry and they end up sleeping with each other, their tension may still be there, but it’s certainly not the same.For a “goddamn delight”
Relationships: Ahn Jaewon | Wyld & Kang Dongho | D.Min, Background Ahn Jaewon | Wyld/Kim Daehyun, Kang Dongho | D.Min/Lee Minsoo, Kim Daehyun & Lee Minsoo
Comments: 5
Kudos: 12





	Is My Heartbeat Speeding Up From Rage Or Something Else?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wildforwyld](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildforwyld/gifts).



If you were in Hogwarts and actually cared about who was who in the houses, you’d probably know about Dongho Kang in Ravenclaw and Minsoo Lee in Slytherin. Both from neutral pure blooded families, and both being significantly talented for their age. 

At first, people expected Minsoo Lee to be a copy of his good-at-everything Gryffindor brother, Minsung. They were surprised to find an easily agitated shrimp with way too much drive and big dreams.

At first, people expected the scion of the Kangs to end up in Slytherin. They were surprised to find him in Ravenclaw, but no less cold and calculating than being in the upper echelons of society will do to a child. 

But their backgrounds aren’t relevant in this case. Here’s the details you do need to know: they’re brilliant students, both want to become curse-breakers, and they hate each other.

There are still rumors that their bitter rivalry had nothing to do with classes and rankings or even themselves. The Kangs and the Lees didn’t interact within the same circles, if you can catch a drift. 

Their rivalry actually started when two children, not understanding the other’s burden, poked at wounds they didn’t know existed, that lasted into a bitter hatred. But that’s to be expected of two kids who were truly to young to navigate all of this with no guidance.

* * *

Dongho was not pleased with this arrangement. 

He had been assigned to work with Minsoo Lee. The rash, annoying, obsessed with his brother Slytherin. Dongho didn’t have anything against the house, just that particular member of it. He had the same dream as Dongho, but none of the level-headedness the job required.

And he still went after it, like a fool’s errand.

Weren’t Slytherins supposed to calculate their risks? Or was Minsoo just all ambition? 

Nevertheless, this is a NEWT-level class and their potions professor is keeping a strict eye on them. 

Well, until class ended and their potion was overtime. The other students just disposed of their unfinished ones - how wasteful. But the professor let them stay behind. Alone.

He will give the brat this, he was dedicated. Foolishly so.

As it was, Minsoo knocked something over to respond to him and the potion exploded.

They cleaned it in cold silence, not dignifying the other with conversation.

And then they split off, but something... something was wrong.

“Hi Dongho!”

Jaewon Ahn, a sixth year in Hufflepuff. A muggleborn from South Korea that his parents had not approved of, fearing people assuming a tip in their neutrality. Which was dumb because their family had Korean heritage. Not that Dongho particularly cared.

“Jaewon.”

“Ah, you don’t look too well,” Jaewon fretted. “Is it NEWTS stress? Why don’t you go and rest?”

And Dongho would be inclined to agree. If he hadn’t inhaled some sort of potion ten minutes before and was now feeling his eyes draw to Minsoo Lee, and an attraction that definitely wasn’t natural and he knew that it was a potions mistake.

One he’d never admit.

Because he certainly would never admit what it was doing to him.

Because now his picturing Minsoo Lee against a wall in far less clothes and in an obscene position, his eyes drawing to his lips and picturing them puffy and slick with spit and red and it’s not helping him-

“I’m fine, Jaewon,” he waved off. He just didn’t want to deal. “I’m going to go rest, you should eat something.”

“I’ll walk you to your tower? I don’t want you to fall ill,” Jaewon fretted. That was just like him.

“Sure,” Dongho agreed, knowing that this was the only subject someone as sensitive and shy as Jaewon would push. “But then you’re going to go eat.”

“Okay, hyung!” Jaewon beamed, the honorific more a term of endearment than anything else whenever the foreign student let it slip. 

They walked, Dongho carefully prodding Jaewon to keep speaking so his mind did not draw back to Minsoo Lee and his smooth skin and how it would look covered in marks- 

Stop.

This was a dumb potion and the effects were none to be desired.

As soon as they arrived, Jaewon beamed and waved goodbye. He was about to head up the stairs when he paused.

“The door closed twice, Lee. Come out,” 

Sure enough, Minsoo Lee, with a nigh-drunken blush high on his cheeks, loped out. 

“What happened with the potion?

“I did nothing, it’s a mistake,” he replied, playing at placid. Not like it did much when they probably both knew the potion made him wonder how his body looked all flushed like that.

“I wasn’t implying you did anything, genius,” the Slytherin hissed.

“I know, you’re the one who messed it up,” he said baldly. Minsoo huffed, his voice raising the stupidly temperamental way it always did. Wanting to shove something in his mouth to shut him up was not an always thing. 

“Merlin’s balls! I knocked something over! That’s not like I didn’t it on purpose!”

“And I’m still dealing with the consequences,” he spat. Minsoo rolled his eyes.

“And I’m still dealing with you, you asshole,” Minsoo threw back. 

Dongho slammed Minsoo against the wall, enraged. 

Later, he’d chalk it up to the potion, but Minsoo was pissing him off. 

But a little gasp worked its way out of Minsoo’s plush, small, wet mouth and that was it for them.

In moments, they were in a broom closet and- and- well... 

* * *

“That might just be the funniest thing you’ve ever told me,” Daehyun Kim, a Hufflepuff sixth year, wheezed. Cheeks burning, he blamed Dongho Kang for leaving a trail of hickies so high up that he had to button his collar to the point where Daehyun noticed and it still didn’t properly cover all the hickies. Hickies that Daehyun noticed and demanded the story of. 

Minsoo vaguely wished he’d lied, now.

“It is not!”

“It is!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Stop making fun of me!” He demanded, but to no avail. Daehyun laughed.

“You’re practically begging for it. You’re telling me you screwed a potion up so bad that you had sex with Dongho Kang!”

“Keep your voice down,” Minsoo hissed. “I don’t need anyone knowing about that.”

“Who’d believe me?!” Daehyun wheezed. He wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t like nobody knew that Minsoo couldn’t stand that asshole.

“I suppose,” Minsoo groused. “I just don’t like it.”

“You could do worse,” Daehyun pointed out. “Isn’t there that guy in your year that’s a notoriously bad lay? What was his name... Michael?”

“There are three in my year,” Minsoo replied grumpily. “Though you’re probably talking about Michael Segnis in Gryffindor. And he’s not any good.” 

“Yeah, but at least Kang didn’t suck, right?” Daehyun offered. Then he froze. “Wait... was he bad though? I kinda assumed-”

“No! Okay?! It wasn’t bad!”

“You liked it.” A mischievous gleam flashed in Daehyun’s eyes. “You liked it,” he repeated.

“Stop it!”

“This is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me,” Daehyun beamed. “I will never shut up about this!”

“I hate you,” Minsoo groaned. 

“No you don’t,” Daehyun chirped. “You also apparent don’t hate Dongho Kang’s di-“

“No!” Minsoo retorted. “That’s not the point! Dongho Kang is a cold, dickish jerk-”

“Who ravished you against a wall?” 

“SHUT UP!”

* * *

  
Dongho had never seen Minsoo Lee look genuinely upset in all their previous years of schooling. Ever.

But there he was, with a parchment and black ink sharply saying words and a miserable expression painting his face.

They hadn’t spoken since they... ah... had their potions incident two weeks ago. Not even when Minsoo actually wore his collar correctly to cover the embarrassingly high number of hickies that Dongho left. Still, he sat on the stone steps next to him.

“What’s wrong?”

He knew it was bad when Minsoo didn’t even snap at him to go away.

“My parents are... they put a lot of pressure on me. And I know they love me but they’re just...” Minsoo sighed. “They treat me like I’m never good enough, and everything about me isn’t serious. They tried to make my brother an example but now they’ve just come to see me as their failure.”

“Your brother?”

“Hah! He probably sees me as coasting through life because everything has come easier to him!” Minsoo leaned back. “I work fingers to blood for grades he achieved after an hour or so of studying. And my parents only see it as me catching up.”

“Was that the letter?”

“No. It’s just... I’m-fuck- I’m really gay and they don’t appreciate that too much either.”

It felt a little like that eleven year old, clumsy and so alone, speaking again when Dongho replied. He knew, by now, that his family might not be the warmest, but it stings sometimes to see what it seems everyone but you can have.

“So your parents pay attention to you?”

“Fuck you, Dongho Kang,” Minsoo snapped. “Fuck you, with your picture-perfect background and no siblings for your parents to care more about than you.”

And it just felt cursory to tack on a fuck you, but there was no heat in it when Dongho replied.

“And fuck you for assuming my parents ever gave a shit about me beyond seeing me as an investment they expect to bring benefit.”

Minsoo gave him a long, pitying, look.

“Fuck parents.”

“Don’t look at me with pity, who’s the one who was sobbing over a letter?”

Minsoo didn’t even respond to his jibe, just set the letter on fire.

Okay, things were bad. What would Jaewon do? Comfort him?

“Listen, it’s-“

“No. Fuck this. Fuck them. And you, fuck me. I’m not thinking about any of this bullshit.”

Dongho hated himself for being into the idea. Hated himself for letting Minsoo Lee order him around. He can’t fucking stand him most days. 

But he hasn’t had a full night of sleep after that incident, waking up flushed with the memory of how Minsoo sounded, how he  _ tasted_. He was disgusted by it. 

Dongho let Minsoo lead him to a nearby bathroom like the stupid teenager he was anyway.

* * *

Minsoo was ditching a post-quidditch party. He’s in the library again, and he can hear the younger him who used to make his big brother play quidditch with him protesting, but Minsoo firmly refused to care. 

He had bigger goals. 

So he was studying.

“I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to be _appare vestigium_ ,” a voice said beside him. Sure enough, it was Dongho, looking over his own notes, but his quill was on the magic-tracing charm in Minsoo’s notes.

Minsoo was, frankly, too tired to care. Because even if the bastard was right, there was an error in his notes too.

“And it’s not goosegrass, it’s gurdyroot,” he said, tapping a quill on Dongho’s notes.

Dongho hummed, switching out the names. And Minsoo took in Dongho’s form. Marble-smooth skin, onyx eyes and hair, a distinct vulpine sharpness to his features, and a broad, muscular figure. Minsoo could begrudgingly admit that he was attractive.

That’s not true, he knew Dongho was attractive. They’ve hooked up twice. And maybe the first was a potions mishap, but he initiated the second time. That was him. 

And it was... actually pretty damn fun. 

But Dongho Kang is a cold bastard and he shouldn’t even be letting him in his pants. 

Minsoo might just throw caution to the wind on this.

“You wanna be a curse-breaker, right? Where do you plan on working with it?”

He could practically hear the snooty response of “The Ministry of Magic, you dolt.”

Dongho did not say that. He didn’t even mention the ministry.

“Gringotts,” Dongho told him. 

“Huh, so do I. I want to get out of here,” Minsoo admitted.

Dongho gave him a commiserating nod.

He remembered their conversation about their families. Maybe they’re not such polar opposites, after all. 

“I was thinking about that curse that breaks runes we were talking about in DADA, and it’s dawning on me that rune redirection is not only a thing, but less likely to cause such an explosion,” Minsoo groused. Classes were their common ground, if there was anything to turn the conversation to, it was this. “I get that it removes any pervasive magic’s that could harm your body and leave a trace, but it’s too unsubtle for the average thing. And what happens if the artifact is priceless, then what?”

“Most people don’t know runes,” Dongho pointed out. “But you’re right. If anything, there was a charm that makes rune redirection easier. They should just teach that.”

“There’s a charm? Show me,” he demanded.

And Dongho did, setting up a simple charm and casting it. Minsoo looked over the runes it created.

“I don’t like these, it’s gonna burn out too quick and corrode the original place the runes were written. That shit takes down walls, and if they want someone to use it as a curse-breaker in a tomb or something,” Minsoo pointed out. Dongho didn’t reply to that, instead pointing out an obvious point they’d both overlooked.

“In theory, developing a spell to write out a set of new runes shouldn’t be impossible.”

“Advanced and highly specific transfiguration?” Minsoo’s suggestion got a rebuttal, which he pointed out a way around. And Dongho suggested a reasonable medium, but Minsoo had a better one.

And that was how Minsoo ended up debating with Dongho about runes and curse-breaking.

And he had to admit that Dongho Kang did know his stuff and had reasonable arguments. And he’s actually interested in the subject, with real emotion in those normally dead eyes. It is a different sort of look on Dongho Kang and Minsoo kinda likes it.

Curfew hit, and Dongho headed back to Ravenclaw. It dawned on Minsoo that they’d been studying together. He realized something else, too. 

They make a pretty good team.

* * *

  
Potions can be a nightmare when it’s obvious that nobody else understands the theory behind the potion. 

It’s not a simple one, and it’s relatively new. The effects should, in theory, turn certain deadly hexes into poison, comparably easier to treat by an attending physician or more deadly to those who don’t know the effects.

A familiar voice spoke up.

“I think we’re the only people with half a clue how this works. Team up and ruin their lives?”

It was Minsoo.

And Dongho knew that if they messed this up, it would screw with their grade. And everyone knows that Minsoo Lee and dongho Kang cannot stand each other.

But wouldn’t their surprise be oh so satisfying? Besides, he had to begrudgingly admit that Minsoo Lee is not just a bad guy, just impulsive.

Impulsive. Dongho had been trained to overthink his every decision. Every plan must have a backup or five. Every decision must be weighed carefully. His choice of friends or career must be carefully kept under wraps.

He knew his parents assumed he’d be a curse-breaker for the Ministry. And he intended to run off and work for Gringotts to see the world. 

Minsoo Lee cared only about his goals and getting there. He threw caution to the wind so hard that it caught Dongho up in its momentum. He made Dongho a little more reckless when he was around.

And Dongho didn’t hate it.

He didn’t hate the idea of doing something on instinct and not a million different scales in his head. It was brilliant, he’d admit, at some points.

“Sure.”

Besides, it’s not like Minsoo’s dumb. He knows that Minsoo was the only other student to get an O in all his subjects but one (which was History of Magic, and he got an A, which was below Dongho’s E and Dongho was _well aware_ of the fact that that one grade was the only reason Dongho was top student fifth year. Minsoo approached studying like a competition, and _Merlin help you_ if he regarded you as competitor.)

Which led them there. 

“Yeah, but we can add the moonstone-pickled wiggentree bark now, can’t we? It’s supposed to set off dark magic,” Minsoo pointed out. It was true, in theory it could cut the potionmaking time by half. Except for one thing.

“You’re forgetting about the syrup of arnica. Adding it directly will make a skin-irritating vapor when arnica’s mixed with ,” Dongho pointed out.

“Prepping it separate and adding it after is a viable option,” Minsoo pointed out. And it was true, the order was entirely based on not messing up the arnica.

“Except that we put it in three steps ago.”

Minsoo deflated.

Dongho couldn’t help it, he starting laughing.

“Uh... you okay? Did you inhale something?”

It wasn’t even funny, but it made Dongho laugh even harder.

And by now he was pretty sure that people are staring because they’re quite a sight: Minsoo Lee and Dongho Kang, mortal enemies, in a position where the much taller and more physically imposing Kang is laughing and the tiny Lee is fretting over him.

So he sobered up, returned to acting normally. And then he got back to work.

Minsoo kept slipping him incredulous glances.

His own thoughts surprised even him when he realized that he thought Minsoo was... actually kinda cute.

They had done well.

And they’d done so well that they’d left everyone in the dust.

Even under that ever-impassive annoying look, there’s a tinge of smugness in Dongho’s face. That’s how well they’d done. And the surprise on the professor’s face was a look he’d savor for a long time.

And he had known after that night in the library that they’d do well. But for people who did well for themselves, they dominated as a team. Minsoo actually went and did things. He was impulsive and quick to act. Dongho was rational and made Minsoo slow down at times, but Minsoo was the one who seemed to push him into finally making a decision. He’s starting to realize just how heavily Dongho overthinks. 

Even then, the way they complement each other, they’re the ones that study hardest. Because they had a dream and they’re scared of failing on the road to get there. And these little victories are their checkpoints, saying they’re doing the right things.

No wonder they’d fought so hard, when their polar opposite was the only other one with the same success. 

They got ready to leave, and saw the sixth years coming in. The Hufflepuff-Gryffindor class. 

Jaewon and Daehyun are heading as they’re leaving and Jaewon greeted Dongho. Minsoo noticed Daehyun watching Jaewon with this starry eyed look.

“Jaewon Ahn?” Minsoo prodded. Daehyun beamed. 

“Jaewon! He’s super kind and really cute and kind of awkward but he’s awesome and maybe I have a crush?”

And Minsoo realized that a month ago, he’d have felt betrayed because he was Kang’s friend and therefore an enemy. Now he isn’t even sure where he stands with Kang. 

So Daehyun being like this was firmly in the fucking hilarious territory.

“What about Minyoung?”

“I like her, but she’s not only dating someone, she’s decided she never even liked guys!” Daehyun laughed. Minsoo paused, confused.

“Didn’t she have a new boyfriend and three new guys on ropes for all of fourth and fifth?”

“Gotta love that repressed culture. You had some girlfriends before you realized that you’re a flaming homosexual,” Daehyun said, bumping their shoulders. And who gave him the right to grow that much taller than him?! The brat.

“Why do you talk like this?” 

“You love me, you really do!” 

“Just ask him out, chicken boy,” Minsoo laughed.

“What?!”

“We’re gonna be late for DADA if we don’t move,” a voice cut in. He looked over, and it was Dongho.

Dongho actually gave Daehyun a long, intimidating look. What was he playing at? Minsoo was about to yell at him as soon as they were out of earshot, but Dongho beat him to the punch.

“He likes Jaewon, doesn’t he?”

Instead of yelling, Minsoo laughed so hard that he almost cried.

* * *

  
Dongho had fallen asleep in the library. And was internally panicking over getting caught. But he’d been woken up by Minsoo Lee, under a heavy disillusionment charm and wearing a mischievous grin.

“You’re under disillusionment too, come on,” he whispered and grabbed Dongho’s hand. He led him to the lake with a laugh. 

When the coast was clear, Minsoo dropped the spells. He beamed at Dongho.

“Sometimes when I’m too stressed, I come here to be one with the squid.”

Wasn’t that just like him?

“Thanks got showing me,” Dongho laughed. 

Without further ado, Minsoo threw off his shirt with a laughing whoop, and jumped into the lake.

And Dongho joined him, neatly folding his shirt.

Minsoo took a dive, splashing Dongho. Which he had to retaliate for. And that devolved quickly into a waterfight that he knew he was too old for. But Minsoo was laughing and Dongho couldn’t find in himself to stop that.

A sudden noise caught their attention.

“A professor,” Minsoo hissed, dragging Dongho underwater with a nonverbal bubblehead charm with the wand he was definitely planning to use for an _aguamenti_. They listened through the distorted sounds of water and the bubble for her to disappear.

It was only after a few moments that he realized Minsoo was pressed against his bare chest. They’d seen more of each other in much more intimate positions. It was dumb for this to fluster him. 

Anyhow, Minsoo’s heart was pounding. It made his own heart speed up with the implications of getting caught as well.

But they weren’t caught.

The professor left without a backwards glance. When the she was far enough away, they came back to land.

Minsoo beamed at him, a little, adrenaline-fueled giggle on his lips.

Dongho smiled back, just a bit.

* * *

They’ve come a long way. And he likes it. They’ve gone from absolute on-sight battles to some sort of classroom camaraderie to someone he might call a tentative friendship.

Except when they got really upset. Really angry or sad. Then they became something... else.

They’d had scattered sex in breathless moments in the hidden corridors and passages. An unintentional rendezvous, so to speak.

Their purpose for this visit to the Forbidden Forest was distinctly less sexy.

“This is Boba,” Dongho said, holding up a black cat. Zero ceremony. Minsoo was almost disappointed. He was a dog person, anyhow.

“Boba? Did you actually rescue a cat from the forest? And you feed it?”

“Her,” Dongho corrected gently. “And yeah.”

“What kinda name is Boba?” Minsoo offered a hand to the cat, who batted her head against it. Asking for pets. 

Maybe he preferred dogs, but he realized, eyes flicking to Dongho, cats definitely had their own appeal.

“It’s something from the muggle world. You put it in tea,” Dongho said, unfazed.

His attention was snagged.

“You’ve been to the muggle world?” His voice was a gleeful gasp and he didn’t care. Dongho nodded absently.

“Sometimes I can just disappear and nobody really cares as long as I don’t mess up big enough for them to notice. I was at a family function in South Korea-“

Oh.

“Jaewon Ahn!” Minsoo shouted, having connected the dots.

“Yeah. I ran into him and his friends and he recognized me, I guess. Dragged me to join him that day. Most of his friends are a year older than him, anyway.” Minsoo flopped on his stomach, hands coming to rest under his chin.

“Whoa, so what did he tell them?”

“Schoolmate from boarding school in the UK. I told them I was escaping my family because they were talking too much business to care,” Dongho began scratching Boba gently behind the ears.

“You said that?”

“I was thirteen,” Dongho defended with no heat.

“If that’s all I need to do, I’ll drag you out at Hogsmede our next trip. I need new quills.”

Dongho just laughed.

Minsoo did drag him out. 

It turned out to be a good time, and they got into an argument over something stupid but academic. It was so them and it was great.

Dongho wasn’t sure exactly how this started. He kind of wanted to hold Minsoo’s hand, just a little. Which was dumb considering they were at the “tentative friendship” stage. But some things were worth being a little dumb. And something was telling him that Minsoo is worth it.

Minsoo slammed him against a wall with surprising force. They were alone in a hall after a heated debate that he’d just barely won and they both knew it.

Dongho would be pissed. Maybe he should be.

But he liked their push and pull dynamic. Even when Minsoo Lee drive him absolutely insane.

Truthfully, Minsoo was good for him. Minsoo had helped him feel free in ways he never had. 

Dongho wondered if he was good for Minsoo. Would they be good together? He could almost see a future with Minsoo, traveling the world and doing cute couple things in between death-defying and fascinating adventures. He was meticulous with potions so he’d do the ones that had offset the trickier poisons and Minsoo would do the redirection of magical energy with the complex runes and they’d probably develop such opposing skillsets because they’d offset each other’s weaknesses they way they already did-

He stopped.

He’s in deep. Really deep. And being in this deep with no strings attached is a drowning liability.

And now that they’re alone and taking each other in the biblical sense, Dongho found his hands tracing across Minsoo like an artist inspired, relishing in his every response. He knows he’s being unwise in this, but he liked the way things were.

* * *

  
Minsoo couldn’t concentrate.

His eyes would not stop tracing dongho across the room. And is it his fault? For their... paramour? 

It’s not like Dongho started anything all of those times, just reciprocated. He can blame himself and only himself for this mess.

And what is the aforementioned mess?

The sudden crush on the Ravenclaw, that he suddenly finds his subtle doting on that owl, Earl Grey, in the mornings cute, or appreciates his dedication to his goals. 

Like now, the little silver bird was perched on the Ravenclaw’s shoulder as Dongho gently fed it. He smiled slightly at the owl, stroking its feather before sending it off. That little gentle smile might just be the most adorable thing Minsoo had ever appreciated. 

Fuck. 

He’s fucked.

What kind of terrible version of Daehyun’s novels was his life turning into?!

Maybe if they stopped having sex? Just kept being friends? He liked their friendship now, and he didn’t want to just give it up.

Yeah, he decided, that should fix it.

* * *

  
Minsoo has stopped initiating sex.

_ That’s not descriptive enough, Dongho. _

Minsoo stopped touching him, or provoking him. It shouldn’t bother Dongho, all those times weren’t supposed to mean anything.

So why is he bothered?

It’s like there was this weird energy when they were together?

And they snap at each other but it’s almost always in educated discussion and somehow they’re still study partners?

They were studying together, and their push and pull didn’t slap and sting. Because they didn’t hate each other anymore. But now this weird energy was subduing even the good parts that he’d come to appreciate. 

Which he figured might have to do with the sex and all that.

But they’re sorta friends now? Like... tentative friends that used to have hate sex? What was that, even?

“The answer was fwooper, wasn’t it?” Minsoo looked over at him, eyes curling into his question. He tilted his head, his long neck on display. Dongho hated his mind sometimes.

“Mn, I think so,” he said. 

“Cuz of the four colors,” Minsoo mused, eyes slightly absent. The glazed look that Dongho saw in heated situations, now looking ridiculously adorable as they studied. “They’re from where? Ireland?”

“That’s an augury you’re thinking of. Fwoopers are African,” he corrected. 

“Augury feathers are pretty, I’d love to use one as a quill,” Minsoo smiled lightly. Dongho rooled his eyes.

“Don’t they repel ink?”

“I know that,” Minsoo rolled his eyes. “I still think it would make a cool quill. Or-“ a wicked gleam shone in his eyes- “a terrible prank.”

“Something’s wrong with this line from this periphery curse,” Dongho frowned. Minsoo leaned over him. He hated himself for storing away the fact that Minsoo’s hair smelled really good. 

“That’s the speech one, not strength,” Minsoo told him, voice soft. Dongho vaugely wondered how a voice like that could sound when Minsoo sang.

“No, that’s there on purpose. It’s to make a person unable to communicate with their wand,” he told him. Minsoo turned to him, eyes wide in excitement. And oh- oh. His heart did so many strange things in his chest.

“That’s brilliant!” 

“I think it’s this one,” Dongho frowned, pointing at a rune that looked out of place. Anything so he could avert his eyes from the airy and light Minsoo beside him. It felt like looking too long would make him combust.

“That means love, not deflect,” Minsoo pointed out.

Something lodged in Dongho’s chest. 

“So it does.”

What was he supposed to do?

Daehyun certainly had nothing useful to add.

“You’ve been in each other’s pants and now you’re friends?! Boy, you’re practically dating!” 

“Hey, do you happen to be forgetting the six years of bitter rivalry? Because that’s awful convenient,” Minsoo groused. Daehyun shrugged.

“You guys are putting it behind you. Now you just bicker like you’ve been married for thirty years,” he said. Minsoo huffed and turned away.

“You have issues.”

And that was how he ended up at an inter-house rager in the room of requirement: Dae’s issues. Aka “what if Jaewon’s there and I embarrass myself and die?!”

Minsoo had never been the type to mess around too much, which was what made whatever he had with Dongho that much weirder. But here he was, in the lap of some guy with dark hair and broad shoulders. Maybe he had a type. 

But midway through, the guy - was his name Justin or Jason? - started to look sharper, he was picturing sharp eyes in place of J-something’s round ones. Minsoo was picturing Dongho.

But, fuck, he was buzzed and he didn’t care. His friends had to drag his tottering form from over to get some water.

And then Minsoo was alone, the heavy weight of missing kissing someone he shouldn’t miss like that on his mind. He looked around.

Daehyun was tipsy, and the guy he knew was named Jay was freaking out. Jay was a sixth-year muggleborn in Gryffindor with dyed-blue hair. Minsoo sighed.

“Dae,” he called over.

“Soo! Soo! This is my friend Jay!”

“That’s nice Dae, lets go on a walk,” Minsoo tugged at Daehyun’s pliant noodle arm. Daehyun beamed.

“I love walking! I’m not very good at it right now though,” he pouted. 

Rolling his eyes, Minsoo led the stumbling beanpole to Jaewon Ahn, who was being approached by some girl and looking very uncomfortable about it.

“Ahn,” he called over. “Can you take this stumbling idiot back to Hufflepuff.”

“You’re- Uh- you’re talking to me?” Jaewon blinked. “I thought you hated me.”

“I don’t know you,” Minsoo replied, blasé. “Can you take him back or not?”

“Uh... yeah! I can do that. Let’s go Daehyunah!” Jaewon took his spot under Daehyun’s arm with frustratingly less trouble and smiled.

“Thanks,” he whispered in Minsoo’s ear as he headed off without a look at the flirting girl, who glared at him for taking her prey.

Speaking of prey, his eyes trailed back to the guy he’d been making out with. And he turned right around and left the room.

Minsoo strode back to the dungeons. He knew what he’d just done. He’d kissed someone because they looked like Dongho. And he’d thought about him when it was someone else’s lips on his. 

Minsoo proceeded to scream into his pillow.

* * *

If Minsoo was being weird before, he was definitely strange now. It’s one thing to avoid touching someone and be less physically close. It’s another to actively run away from him.

What did he even do?

It made him a little angry. But that wasn’t within his right. Maybe something was going on in Minsoo’s life that he wasn’t privy to.

“Hyung, are you doing okay?”

“I’m fine, how’s sixth year?”

“There are so many butterflies this time of year! I’ve been talking to professors and I got my hands on some things so...” Jaewon fidgeted. “I tried making a wand?”

“Is that even legal?”

“I dunno, but I wasn’t called out on it,” Jaewon shrugged. “It’s not like it was very powerful, all it did was condense sunshine?”

Dongho blinked.

“That’s an Olde Magick wand, Jaewon. Ollivander’s going to be chomping at the bit to have you,” he said seriously. Those wands were highly specific and did not last very long, but they had finicky magical connections that took real talent to be able to lay in place. 

“Wha- hyung!” Jaewon turned pink. Dongho knew to change the subject.

“How are your friends in Korea?”

“I’m exchanging letters with Jun! Taehyuk keeps forgetting to write and Nari refuses to, so Jun gives me everything I need to know.” Jaewon jumped on the shift. Jun was the most standoffish. The picture of him writing letters... Dongho pursed his lips. He’d only write to catch Jaewon up if things were bad.

“What’s going on over there?”

“Um... Jun got scouted to be an idol while working at the coffeeshop he wasn’t supposed to have a job in... he’s in some hot water right now,” Jaewon told him glumly. Dongho frowned. 

“Wasn’t the school aware of his financial situation? I know he refused to let me help him...”

“Muggle schools, when it comes to caring about their students, they can be a little hit or miss,” Jaewon told him. He shook his head.

“I suppose there are things we just don’t understand.”

Like Minsoo. And why he was being like this.

Jaewon caught on to his expression and started frantically trying to cheer him up. But Dongho would have to admit he wasn’t paying attention anymore. There was only one solution for this that he could think of for his current conundrum. And now he had to weigh it out in his head.

He needed to talk to Minsoo. And tell him how he felt.

* * *

Minsoo Lee doesn’t do parties. And no, he doesn’t have a stick up his ass. He just doesn’t give enough of a fuck.

He’s cursing a lot because this is his third and he’s in another guy’s lap. He’s thin and blonde and Minsoo only sees black hair and broad shoulders.

He can’t stop thinking about Dongho Kang. And his mind is pretending every pair of lips on his belong the the Ravenclaw.

It should hurt, but it honestly just made him angry. He was avoiding him! He should be over him!

And he wished it was simple as thinking he was a douche but Dongho is secretly soft and Minsoo can’t hate him anymore. Not when Minsoo feels the way he does about him.

So he traced over the potion recipe in their next potions class. Clinging to some last vestiges of hope that all of this was from a mistake.

There was no possible way this had come about from Amortentia or a confusing or befuddlement fraught. The ingredients were too different. A dreamless sleep potion- technically for sixth years but it was a revision day- had no herbs with the main effect.

A shard of glass caught his eye. It was the bottle he’d knocked over.

“Newt spleens in armadillo bile?”

What set of ingredients in a purple poti-

Oh.

Wit-sharpening potion. For _fourth years._

And that meant he really couldn’t deny that he’d been an idiot. The wit-sharpening potion had no aphrodisiac qualities, but it could make a pair of idiots realize that they liked each other and sharpen their natural reactions until their own dull eyes could see how attracted they actually were-

Fuck.

“What are you doing?” A voice behind him made him jump a meter high. He turned to see Dongho, clad in familiar Ravenclaw blue.

See, Minsoo, this is your opportunity to address your problems like an adult! Take it!

“None of your business, asshole.”

...Nice going, Minsoo.

Dongho lost his control. He’d regret and kill on it for hours but right now, he was pissed. How dare he make Dongho fall head over heels? And then not only avoid him, but go back to being a dick to him?

“Oh, you’ll regret calling me an asshole,” he snarled, pushing Minsoo against a wall. 

Minsoo rolled his eyes. 

“You like this, don’t you?”

“I still remember the way you taste,” Dongho murmured against his neck. “You dick, you can’t push and pull with me like that.”

“You like my dick,” Minsoo preened.

Dongho dropped him, he landed with a little ‘oof’ that had no right to be as cute as it was.

“I hate this. I hate this so much.”

Why couldn’t they go back to hating each other smoothly?

“I can’t keep kissing strangers and pretending they’re you!” Minsoo shot back.

Dongho stared at him, and picked him right back up. What had he said? A possessive flame made his grip tighten.

“So, you’ve been kissing other people.”

“It’s not like we’re... anything. What do I owe it to, to abstain like a monk until I piss you off enough to fuck me?”

“So what you’re saying-“ Dongho threw Minsoo over his shoulder- “is if I want to keep you, I need to sate you. You horny bastard.”

“Are you seriously proposing a friends with benefits situation after throwing me over your shoulder, dickwad?!”

_How_ was Minsoo Lee a contender for top student position when he’s this slow?

“I’m proposing a boyfriend situation, dumbass.”

“And what makes you think I’m going to accept?! You’re so annoying!” Minsoo’s voice rose to a shout. But there was no venom.

A smile made its way to his face.

“But am I your favorite annoyance?”

“I’d be dating you for your dick, and only your dick.” Dongho chuckled. Who gave him the right to be cute when he was insulting him?

“Hey, I was raised to be half of a trophy relationship as it is. I don’t mind.”

“Why are you like this?!”

“‘Cause I stopped giving a fuck about pretenses after the third time we had sex, Minsoo,” Dongho rolled his eyes. 

“Oh my fucking-“

“You like that, don’t you?” Dongho hummed.

“You absolute dick!”

He put Minsoo down. He was probably being a little forceful for asking to be someone’s boyfriend.

But Minsoo grabbed his shirt and pulled him down to eye level. He was so tiny, even with all that personality.

“You like me, huh?”

“Yeah? What about it?”

And they stood there, and Dongho took a moment to glance at Minsoo’s lips. Which he was rudely biting.

His eyes flicked up to see Minsoo’s eyes on his mouth, eyes raising to meet his.

Gently, because he didn’t want to screw this up, he pressed a kiss to those freshly-bitten lips.

Minsoo stared at him, eyes wide, before pulling him in, nipping at his lips, prying his mouth open. And Dongho let him. Nothing they hadn’t done before.

But still, his heart was doing funny things in his chest.

“This is so messed up?” Minsoo stopped to laugh against his mouth. “I was supposed to graduate hating you and now you’ve gone and made me like you, you dick.”

“You like my dick,” Dongho echoed.

“You’re insufferable,” Minsoo glared. 

“You adore me, you do,” he deadpanned. Minsoo gave him a crooked grin.

“Merlin help me, yeah I do.”

**Author's Note:**

> I put so much effort into picking their houses... oof.
> 
> Daehyun is kind and soft and I was seriously debating Ravenclaw for him. He’s not ambitious enough for Slytherin and his fatal flaw was not speaking up when the time calls for it. So Hufflepuff.  
> Jaewon IS Hufflepuff. End of story. I mean... look at him?! Loyal baby who will endure everything for his friends?!  
> Minsoo is Slytherin. He had big dreams and has gone so far to chase them once he got a motive.  
> Dongho had to be Ravenclaw. I know fic authors like putting more stoic characters in Slytherin, but Dongho canonically left prestige behind for his passion and his craft.  
> R A V E N C L A W. Nuff said.
> 
> As for discussing wandmakers/cursebreakers as dream jobs: those didn’t seem like common professions. Or goals to have. (Taken in comparison to their jobs as idols.) ALSO, why does everybody either wanna own a book or pet shop, be a teacher, or be an auror?!  
> There are T O N S of interesting jobs and nobody talks enough about them. I’d wanna be a wandmaker, what about you guys?


End file.
